Xfm online 2004-09-02 – “Preposterous? Deranged? Us?!” Muse Face the Music
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“Preposterous? Deranged? Us?!” Muse Face The Music
Matt Bellamy, lead singer and guitarist with post-Biblical space rockers Muse, takes time out to explain how it felt to decimate Glastonbury, being a guitar God and why he and his band are definitely not insane.
Following a tumultuous festival season of injuries, headline performances and the tragic death of drummer Dom Howard’s father, Matt Bellamy’s mind is currently anywhere but on his work. As per usual, however, he seems completely oblivious to the fact that the rest of music world think he’s completely mental.
“I can’t see [that we’re] deranged,” Bellamy explained to the Herald. “I’d associate that with Slipknot maybe. People see this classical thing coming in now and I think that makes some people think its some kind of pretentious kind of thing.
“There’s probably a few confused people out there who [think I’m a guitar God]. I don’t think I deserve that kind of adoration yet, maybe in 10 years if I get any better. [ex-Rage Against The Machine guitarist] Tom Morello [is a personal hero]. He’s like the greatest guitarist around, I think I’d be nervous if I met him.”
Following the band’s triumphant Glastonbury headline set, the band encountered a personal setback as Dom’s father died of a heart attack not long after the band left the stage. Bellamy spoke candidly about the tragedy.
“It was the best feeling we’ve ever had on stage, and when we came off stage as well. We felt like that was it… I’ve never had that before, that feeling where you come off and you think, ‘That was definitely the best moment we’ve had so far.’ I think it’s because Glastonbury is a very well-respected gig, and a gig I used to go to a lot when I was young, as a punter. So, to get there was a nice link back to when I was a kid watching other bands playing and wanting to be up there.
“[The death of Dom’s father] was an unbelievable shock,” Bellamy continues. “It was a completely surreal experience. Obviously Dom was deeply shocked by it all. So we ended up taking time off and Chris (Wolstenholme, bassist) and I went down to Devon and spent time with Dom, helping out with organizing things, that kind of stuff. The only good thing, if you can get a good thing out of it, is his Dad got to see him in probably what was the finest moment so far on stage, and that’s probably a rare thing for parents to see. That’s something Dom held on to, which helped him through, I think.”
With the band’s current hectic schedule taking them all over the World, the trio could be forgiven a little jet-lagged confusion. Best to keep the blunders off the stage though…
“We should get [the name of the city we’re in] written on the setlist,” Bellamy confesses “Dom keeps making mistakes. We were in Santiago in Spain, and he came on stage and goes ‘Hey, San Diego!’ He thought we were in San Diego in California, which was pretty embarrassing for everyone…”
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Jon Ford